"The community reaction was pretty much uniform,"
recalls Rich Morin, leader of a Unix user group at the
time. "People said, `Oh, that's a great idea. Show us
your code. Show us it can be done.'"
In true hacker fashion, Stallman began looking for
existing programs and tools that could be converted
into GNU programs and tools. One of the first was a
compiler named VUCK, which converted programs written
in the popular C programming language into
machine-readable code. Translated from the Dutch, the
program's acronym stood for the Free University
Compiler Kit. Optimistic, Stallman asked the program's
author if the program was free. When the author
informed him that the words "Free University" were a
reference to the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam,
Stallman was chagrined.
"He responded derisively, stating that the university
was free but the compiler was not," recalls Stallman.
"I therefore decided that my first program for the GNU
Project would be a multi-language, multi-platform compiler.
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